Harris Poll On Taxation—Frustration And Distrust
Unlike property taxes and sales taxes which are assessed by government, the federal income tax is calculated by American taxpayers. That is why some people claim that we have a “voluntary compliance system.”
According to information from the IRS Data Book:
- During Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, the IRS collected close $3.5 trillion
- Processed more than 240 million tax returns and other forms
- Issued more than $736 billion in tax refunds (including $268 billion in Economic Impact Payments).
- In FY 2020, 59.5 million taxpayers were assisted by calling or visiting an IRS office.
- IRS.gov received nearly 1.6 billion visits and taxpayers downloaded more than 437 million files.
- 57% of American adults believe they are taxed at unfairly high rates. This spans every cohort – age, gender, income, education, and race/ethnicity.
- 78% of men aged 45-54 say they are overtaxed.
- Those with a household income of $75,000 to $99,900 per year (71%) and college graduates (57%) are also more likely to feel overtaxed.
- Nearly three-quarters of US adults disagree with how their tax dollars are being spent.
- Half of American adults say businesses are most likely to cheat on their tax returns. Nearly 6 in 10 also say high-income individuals are more likely to commit fraud than low- and middle-income individuals. (The reality, according to the Internal Revenue Service, is that three-fourths of tax dodgers are individuals — mostly middle-income — the rest are businesses.)
- Almost two-thirds of American adults say that intentionally misrepresenting income is tax evasion. But a slim majority (52%) say there is no difference between under-reporting income and using legal loopholes to mitigate debt.
- And almost half of them (48%) think that intentionally understating your income isn’t tax evasion (which it is).
- Most millennials, who are currently 26 to 41 years old, say it’s not a crime to misrepresent personal finances to lower your tax bill.
Conclusion
St. Thomas Aquinas believed a law should be:
- An ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated.
- Reasonable or based in reason and not merely in the will of the legislator. … It is promulgated so that the law can be known.
Before we start our analysis, we should look at how politicians define words. We all remember President Clinton’s testimony before the grand jury:
“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the—if he—if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement. … Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.”
The Ruling Class and their minions in D.C. are experts at twisting definitions for their own benefit. They tell us that they totally agree with St. Thomas Aquinas. They explain that “for the common good” means anything that benefits them and we simple people should just accept that and do as we are told.
As to a law that can be known, not even the highest-priced tax professionals will say that they fully understand the IRC. They may claim to have a good understanding of part of the IRC, but one of the reasons that they are paid so much is that even their limited understanding far exceeds what the average person understands about the tax code.
We mere mortals have no idea if we are complying with our obligations under the IRC and most of us cannot afford to hire high-priced tax professionals. We often feel like the cork floating on the ocean—we have no control over how the IRS may rule about one of our income tax returns.
However, we know that in a dispute with the IRS, it usually costs less to just pay what the IRS is demanding rather than fighting to prove our case. Even if we are right, and we often are, it still costs more to prove we’re right than to just pay the incorrect assessment.
If we complain about the system, the Ruling Class and their minions in D.C. dismiss those complaints by claiming that we’re not smart enough to understand that the IRC is really for our benefit and we should just accept their word on what is best for us.
Now, let’s compare the FAIRtax to the current income/payroll tax system:
- With the FAIRtax, there are no complicated tax forms to prepare under penalty of perjury
- The FAIRtax is simple to understand. It’s included in the retail prices of new goods and services. You pay the tax when you make a retail purchase, and that’s all there is to it.
The attitudes expressed in the Harris Poll show the rapidly increasing resistance to the income/payroll tax system. All of us know this because we see evidence of income tax evasion all around us. The fact that the IRS has acknowledged that the annual amount is over $1 trillion is very concerning to the Ruling Class, but they persist in propping up a failed system because of the benefits they can extract from it.
Many of our fellow Americans agree with Robert Heinlein’s statement and their actions and opinions send a frightening message to the Ruling Class. Heinlein said:
I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
The income/payroll tax system is broken and no longer working—we can’t repair it but we can replace it with the FAIRTAX!
Join us and TAKE BACK CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY—NOT WITH BULLETS BUT WITH THE ELIMINATION OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO OUR LIBERTY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY—THE INCOME/PAYROLL TAX.
We all should remember Edmund Burke’s warning that applies to our efforts to TAKE BACK CONTROL,
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
We should also remember this quote from George Orwell's 1984, which, if we do nothing, may foretell your and your children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
What Can Each Of Us Do?
We can write letters and make calls to our elected representatives and attend Zoom town hall meetings demanding that if they really want to allow Americans to “TAKE BACK CONTROL”, the first step is to eliminate the income/payroll tax system and enact the FAIRTAX!
If you want to prevent the IRS from being further weaponized to punish those of us who may object to the D.C. opinions and dictates of what is good for us, then help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
The IRS will be gone and we will pay our taxes when we make purchases. WE and not D.C. Elites will decide how much federal tax we pay!
If you have friends who don’t know about the FAIRtax, send them to FAIRtax.org. Have them watch the white boards under “How It Works” and, if they agree, ask them to please join us.
Then contact your Members of Congress and the President and demand that Congress pass -the FAIRtax—the only fair tax
Remember, if we don't continue to tell the truth and demand a change, then this quote from George Orwell's 1984 may foretell our children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
Is it hopeless? When confronted with a seemingly impossible problem, remember the statement attributed to the author George Bernard Shaw who wrote, You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”
Isn’t it time for us to ask, “Why not?”
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